Conical honeycomb structure



Nov. 25, 1969 'E. T. BRYAND 3,480,148

CONICAL HONEYCOMB STRUCTURE Filed Feb. 2, 1967 INVENTOR. Edwo rd T. Brycnd ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,480,148 CONICAL HONEYCOMB STRUCTURE Edward T. Bryand, South Portland, Maine, assignor to Metal-Tech Inc., Biddeford, Maine, a corporation of Maine Filed Feb. 2, 1967, Ser. No. 613,675 Int. Cl. B04b 3/00, 7/08 U.S. Cl. 210-380 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An improved honeycomb openwork structure of frusto-conical configuration, especially useful as a centrifuge basket or the like, the openwork being characterized by an intermediate ring, in addition to the end rings and by the slotting of all three rings to permit the honeycomb strips to be welded, or brazed, into the slots.

2 Claims BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION for the apparatus. Thus a cylindrical suction roll assembly such as that disclosed'in U.S. Patent No. 3,139,375 to Bryand is capable of excellent performance and has been widely accepted.

However, while it has been relatively easy to provide flat and cylindrical honeycombed structures, it has heretofore been unknown to provide conveniently-assembled irregular honeycomb'shapes such as frusto-conical structures, fan-shaped segments, annular discs and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is an object of the instant invention to provide a frusto-conical honeycomb structure having excellent liquid flow-through characteristics, a good strengthto-weight ratio, and capable of operation in relatively heavy duty service such as encountered in a centrifuge or the like.

In general, these objects have been obtained by assembling novel strip elements in a plurality of ring supports. The ring supports are arranged in order of decreasing diametenThe novel strip elements connect the ring supports. These strip elements comprise two thin strips, preferably metallic strips, each strip bent into a row of spaced, half-polygonal (preferably half-hexagonal) configurations. In forming thenovel stripelements, the aforesaid'two thin strips are mounted proximate to one another to form a series of hexagonal conduits. Advantageously, although not necessarily, a third and fiat thin reinforcing metal strip is mounted between the aforesaid bent strips and they are attached to it. In such strip elements, the reinforcing strip bisects the aforesaid hexagonal conduits.

In achieving a suitable frusto-conical honeycombed structure, the novel strip elements are arranged so that the polygonal (or half-polygonal) conduits are directed radially toward the center axis of the structure. It has been discovered that the strip elements should be wider on the outerface of a frusto-conical structure than on the innerface thereof. Furthermore, the total width of the strip element should decrease as the diameter of the frusto-conical structure decreases. In order to further p ICC minimize the problems associated with the construction of said structure, it has been found desirable to have a support ring at a point intermediate the extremities of the frusto-conical structure; the said intermediate ring is fitted with two sets of slots forming intermediate means to receive and support different sets of strip elements on each side thereof. The use of an intermediate ring has the further advantage of allowing the progressively decreasing width of the strip elements, and consequently smaller polygonal conduits to be discontinued as they become excessively small. The strip elements on the other side of the intermediate support ring can start again with greater width and continue to diminish in width as they approach the smallest support ring. In such a case the number of slots for receiving the strip elements would be considerably fewer on the second side of the intermediate ring than on the first side. At the extremities of the frusto-conical structure are end rings preferably also fitted with slots for receiving the strip elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a schematic and perspective view of a frusto-conical structure according to the invention. The inner and outer faces of the honeycomb are only partially shown;

FIGURE 2 is an elevational view of the subject of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a section showing sections of the support rings utilized in the invention;

FIGURE 4 is a view of the face of two novel .honeycomb strip elements according to the invention as said strip elements would appear looking radially through the openwork from within the cone structure in an embodiment of the invention such as that shown in FIGURES.

1 and 2;

FIGURE 5 is a view of the faces of two novel honeycomb strip elements shown in FIGURE 4 as said strip elements would appear looking radially inward from outside the cone structure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGURES 4 and 5 show opposite inner and outer faces of two honeycomb strip units 11 and 12. An assembly of units 12 extends between small diameter end ring 15 and an intermediate support ring 14, and an assembly of units 11 extends between the intermediate support ring 14 and a large diameter end ring 13 to form a fenestrated frusto-conical structure 10 shown most clearly in FIGURES 1 and 2. The honeycomb strip units 11 and 12 are each approximately one and one-sixteenth inches in depth, i.e. the direction normal to the faces of FIG- URES 4 and 5 in the embodiment shown, but may be of any desired depth.

Each strip unit 11 or 12 preferably includes a straight thin reinforcing strip 16, and two thin boundary strips 17, there being another straight strip 16 between each adjacent pair of strip units. Boundary strips 17 are bent into a series of undulations, each undulation comprising a lower flat segment 19, an upwardly angled segment 20, an upper flat segment 21 and a downwardly angled segment-22. While the flat segments appear to be substantially parallel to one another and substantially parallel to reinforcing strips 16, the parallel is imperfect as will be understood from a consideration of the nature of the geometry of a frusto-conically-shaped object. Each succeeding undulation along each strip unit 11 or 12 has an increasing amplitude 23 from the small to the large end of the structure 10. The increase is approximately proportional to the increase in circumference along the length of the conical structure 10. This increase is true of the undulations whether they are viewed from within the cone (FIGURE 4) or from without the cone (FIG- URE 5). However, amplitude 23 is smaller all along the inner faces 24 shown in FIGURE 4 than it is on the outerface 25 shown in FIGURE 5. This is accomplished by increasing the width of fiat segments 19 and 21 and decreasing the width of angled segments 20 and 22 as the radii from the axis of the cone decreases.

Reinforcing strips 16 are bonded to undulating strips 17 by heli-arc welding as known to the metal-fabricating art. For example, the welding is done at every fifth fiat, lower segment 19 along the length of units 11 and 12.

Strip units 11 and 12 start and terminate in a pair of lower flat segments 19, each terminal segment 19 being welded on an opposite side of the straight reinforcing strip 16, so that the terminal tips form a projecting terminal tongue 26 which is adapted for insertion into receiving slots 27 spaced along the periphery of rings 13, 14, and 15. The terminal rings 13 and 15 each have one set of slots 27 in the faces 28 thereof which are in planes normal to the circumference of the truncated cone defined by the rings; intermediate ring 14 has two sets of slots 27. These slots 27 are spaced differently in the various faces 28 in order to position the strip units, which are of different amplitudes, in snug relationship one to another. The slots in any face 28 diverge from one another from inside to outside in order to conform to the frusto-conical shape to be formed by the strip units received therein. The tongues 26 of units 11 and 12 are conveniently silver brazed into slots 27.

From this arrangement, and reference to FIGURE 2, it will be clear that the use of intermediate support ring 14 provides a means to segregate the honeycomb openwork into a first openwork 32 (as identified in FIGURE 2) formed by strip units 11 between rings 13 and 14 and a second openwork 33 (as identified in FIGURE 2) formed by strip units 12 between rings 14 and 15. This segregation allows the avoidance of very small hexagonal conduits, because whenever the conduit size decreases to an undesirable extent, an intermediate support ring may be inserted and a new series of strip units of smaller number but having a greater initial amplitude can be fitted into the opposite face of the support ring.

The faces 28 of the rings 13, 14, and 15 are in parallelism, and there are an identical number of slots 27 in each pair of opposed faces 28 for receiving the terminal tongues 26 of the units 11 or 12 and for receiving an end of each straight strip 16 between adjacent units 11 and adjacent units 12.

The longitudinally extending portions of the bent strips 17, comprising the upper flat segments, or walls, 21, diverge away from each other from the inside to the outside, by reason of the tapered bend lines such as 34 and 35, thereby permitting the strip units to be packed into frusto-conical configuration without buckling or other undesirable distortion.

It will be seen that the tapered strip units 11 and 12 could be assembled into a flat fan shape, a flat disc or annulus or the like, but, in such case, the walls 21 would not require angular bends 34 and 35, and the honeycomb conduits could be of uniform cross-sectional area from top to bottom.

What is claimed is:

'1. A hollow, truncated, conical shell for use in a centrifuge, said shell comprising:

a large diameter end ring, a small diameter end ring and an intermediate ring of a diameter falling between the diameters of said end rings, said intermediate ring having a pair of opposite, parallel faces, and each end ring having a single face in parallelism with said pair of faces, all said faces being in planes normal to the circumferential surface of the truncated cone defined by said rings;

an identical number of strip-receiving slots spaced around each opposed pair of faces in said rings, the slots in the face of said small diameter end ring being more closely spaced to each other than the slots in the other said faces, and all of said slots diverging away from each other from the inside of each ring to the outside thereof;

a first truncated, conical openwork extending between said intermediate ring and said large diameter end ring;

a second truncated conical openwork extending between said intermediate ring and said small diameter end rlng;

said openworks each comprising alternate straight thin strips and angularly bent thin strips, jointly defining half hexagonal conduits, the opposite ends of said strips being secured in the slots of said rings and the longitudinally extending portions of adjacent strips diverging away from each other from the inside to the outside, and

the half-hexagonal areas enclosed by said strips in said second openwork being progressively larger from the said small diameter end ring to said intermediate ring.

2. A hollow, truncated, conical shell for use in a centrifuge, said shell comprising:

at least three rings each of progressively increasing diameter from the small end to the large end of said shell and adapted to define a truncated cone when spaced apart in parallelism, each said ring having strip receiving slots spaced therearound, the slots in the smaller diameter ring being more closely spaced than the slots in the larger diameter ring;

alternate straight and angularly bent thin metal strips,

' extending between said rings, the ends of said strips being secured in said slots, and the bends in said strips defining half hexagonal conduits with said straight strips;

said slots and the angular bends in said strips being arranged to reduce the area of said conduits on the inside of said shell to less than the area of said conduits on the outside of said shell, and

to form conduits of progressively increasing area from the small end of said shell to proximate the large end of said shell.

References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,940,813 12/1933 Roberts 210-369 X 2,226,463 12/ 1940 Gibbens 210-380 2,321,207 6/1943 Howe 210-380 3,139,375 6/1964 Bryand 156-197 X 3,199,681 8/1965 Kirkpatrick 210-380 X 3,226,257 12/1965 Steele et a1. 210-369 X 3,259,961 7/1966 Bryand 156-197 X 3,411,631 11/1968 Elsken et a1. 210-380 X JAMES L. DEOESARE, Primary Examiner US. 01. X.R. 210-497 

